Comment by Dale Headley on September 22, 2011 at 4:50pm

   If you are worried about going to Hell, you needn't.  If you are looking forward to Heaven, don't hold your breath.  By the way, once you get to Heaven, do you eagerly anticipate being there forever, and ever, and ever and...?

Comment by Matthew on September 22, 2011 at 5:32pm

oh no, im not. i just find it disturbing that people of religion are more readily able to describe hell than heaven. I have no doubt in my mind that theres no heaven or hell. im just going off the concepts of the religious. Since i think that the book came from men, not the word of god, i find it very disturbing that hell is painted more vividly than heaven. idk if its because of the affinity for violence and blood that the abrahamic religion has or if its just the psyche of the followers.

Comment by Matthew on September 22, 2011 at 5:33pm

im completely atheist. this is just a thought that occured to me after talking to these people for a while. did you read the post?

Comment by Eoganacht on September 23, 2011 at 3:42am

I think Revelations describes heaven. Basically it sucks. And I think hell is only mentioned in passing comment. Everything else is peoples' imaginations; just like the rest of it.

Comment by Hope on September 23, 2011 at 9:10am

I was a muslim but I didnt like the Islamic description of heaven!

Comment by Rebecca Shockley on September 23, 2011 at 2:06pm

I always had trouble with the vague-ity of heaven. Everyone seemed to have a different idea of it in their minds, but it seemed incredibly boring to me. Better than hell though.

 

On the other hand, you are right, hell is constantly described in the bible. I never realized it so much when I was in religion but the christian god is consumed with petty revenge (in most churches its glazed over). And on a side note: In church you are taught that god killed (sorry "sacrificed") jesus just for you and your sorry soul but I would always think, if he would do that to his "son" what wouldn't he do to me! It was unnerving.

Comment by Lewal on September 23, 2011 at 10:30pm

Technically depends on your definition of the soul. If you retain full mental capacity but your actual physical brain is on/in Earth deteriorating, then I'd have to ask whether or not the possibility of going insane is still on the table. Because we're talking a loooooooong time. If however you've been granted some state of bliss, then... well that sounds kind of like mind control but I think it's intended as a "gift." Unless the soul doesn't reside in the brain, but that... well, that's impossible.

Comment by anti_supernaturalist on September 24, 2011 at 12:27am

Doctrines of punishment rooted in impossible revenge against Rome

 

Revenge literature, notably the Revelation of "saint" John "the divine" -- the last book of the so-called new testments -- appears as thickly disguised prophecy which enters xianity via judaism (search: "first Enoch") from zoroastrianism.

 

In addition, the antenicean "fathers" -- writing before the Council of Nicea in 325 CE -- are quite open about hoping to see Rome and its emperor burn forever. Here is xian hope of Tertullian (220 CE) as expressed in De Spectaculis. (On Entertainments):

 

[T]hat last day of judgment…that day unlooked for by the nations…when the world…shall be consumed in one great flame! How vast a spectacle…!

What there excites my admiration? What my derision? Which sight gives me joy? Which rouses me to exultation? — as I see so many illustrious [Roman emperors]…groaning now in the lowest darkness…and those…governors of provinces…who persecuted the Christian name, in fires more fierce than those…they raged against the followers of Christ.

[The] world's wise men…the very [Epicureans]…who taught…that God had no concern for events beneath the Circle of the Moon, [i.e. on Earth], and…that either [we] had no souls, or that they would never return to the bodies which at death they had left. They [are] now covered with shame…as one fire consumes them!

[Y]et even now we in a measure have [these visions] by faith in the picturings of imagination.

…[M]y eager wish [is] to fix a gaze insatiable on those whose fury vented itself against the Lord. "This," I shall say, "this is that...[whore’s] son, that Sabbath-breaker, that Samaritan and devil-possessed! This is He whom you purchased from Judas! This is He whom you struck with reed and fist, whom you contemptuously spat upon, to whom you gave gall and vinegar to drink! This is He whom His disciples secretly stole away, that it might be said He had risen again, or the gardener abstracted, that his lettuces might come to no harm from the crowds of visitants!"*

 

"Christianity is the practice of nihilism" -- Nietzsche

 

the anti_supernaturalist

 

*Chapter 30 De Spectaculis. (On Entertainments) Translated by S. Thelwall. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0303.htm>" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0303.htm>;

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